Major Themes
Major themes will be organized to cover the considerable challenges that we are all facing: in providing enough energy to make possible the pursuit of economical growth and human development; the design of processes more acceptable from an environmental and social standpoint; the invention of new materials and new biologically based processes and products that will make our life easier; and the evolution of our discipline as it will have to adapt to the increasingly complex world we are living in. Of course, the diversity of chemical engineering goes beyond these five main themes, and major sessions are planned to deal with all the contemporary issues of our discipline.
Energy
We are entering an era of unprecedented investment in clean energy supplies, and in infrastructure to allow more efficient use of this energy. This transformation will lead to new energy cycles, and technologies for transmission and storage. The three major areas of interest include advances in the current main source of energy—hydrocarbons, topics related to the revival of and new technologies in nuclear energy, and the potential breakthroughs in several sustainable energy technologies (biomass-ethanol, biodiesel, photovoltaics, fuel cells, etc.).
Green Processing
Current industrial processes are based on a century of development that has featured low-cost raw materials, cheap energy, and flexible handling of by-products and wastes. Future green processing will emphasize renewable raw materials, low energy consumption; and recycling or reusing intermediates and end-products. This approach to process development goes beyond substitution to achieve significant reductions in the environmental impact of the processes. Green processing will encompass all sectors, including pulp and paper, fuels, commodity and specialty chemicals, polymers, and manufactured products. An area not usually mentioned in this context is industrial safety in the chemical industry, which should see major benefits from the introduction of green processes.
New Materials & Processes
Chemical engineering has traditionally played a critical role in the development and commercialization of new materials. New or improved materials are a continuous focus of academic and industrial research and development. New nanomaterials are the basis of many nanotechnology projects and the topics in this area extend from specialized instrumentation/measurements to synthesis and applications. Products that may be composites or designed materials have been recognized as an important area of applications and new processes, such as those based on microprocessing or process intensification are a continuing field of interest in both academia and industry.
Biotechnology
The integration of biological process knowledge into engineering design and applications has resulted in several rapidly emerging fields of biotechnology. Areas of interest include biomaterials, cell and protein engineering and therapies, cell-material interactions, drug delivery, tissue engineering, and regenerative medicine-based technologies.
Chemical Engineering and Society
The first wave of chemical engineering education was based on integration by the analysis of unit operations. The second wave sought the common fundamentals through transport processes. The next wave will be driven by the increasing complexity of chemical and biochemical processing to integrate tools from systems engineering and information technology.
Other Contemporary Topics in Chemical Engineering
Although most areas of interest to chemical engineers fit easily into one of the five main conference themes a number of important symposia topics did not, These have been grouped into this additional theme which includes separation science and technology, rheology in chemical processing and product design, process design, mixing in industrial processes, surface forces, analytical techniques, non intrusive methods and modeling in particle technology, chemical engineering in aeronautics, multi scale structures, computer fluid dynamics, and knowledge management in process engineering..